2013 Annual Report of the SSI Program

Redeterminations are reviews of all of the nonmedical factors of eligibility to determine whether a recipient is still eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and still receiving the correct payment amount. There are two types of redeterminations: scheduled and unscheduled. All recipients are subject to periodic scheduling for a redetermination. Every year the Social Security Administration (SSA) schedules redeterminations for the cases most likely to have payment error, but the agency can also schedule reviews for cases unlikely to have payment error. SSA completes unscheduled redeterminations on an as-needed basis when recipients report, or we discover, certain changes in circumstances that could affect the continuing SSI payment amount. The numbers of redeterminations completed fluctuate from year to year due to variation in: (1) the numbers of unscheduled redeterminations completed; and (2) the numbers of scheduled redeterminations that we are able to complete during the fiscal year because of limitations on administrative resources and the impact of other workload requirements on the field offices. Redeterminations that we cannot complete in the scheduled fiscal year carry over into the next fiscal year.

Beginning in 1993, SSA developed a screening process for OASDI cases scheduled for a CDR in order to handle the large CDR workload mandated by these various provisions. The screening process included a mailer questionnaire for selected cases. In 1996, SSA extended the profiling process to SSI adults who were scheduled for a CDR. In fiscal year 2012, we deferred full medical reviews for 392,960 adult SSI recipients scheduled for a CDR as a result of the screening process.

For individuals who receive both OASDI and SSI benefits on the basis of their own disability, SSA initiates CDRs as Title II CDRs, and the results of the review affect eligibility for benefits under both programs.1 Table V.D2 presents the numbers of centrally-initiated periodic medical CDRs of SSI recipients we performed under Titles II and XVI since 1993. Tables V.D3 and V.D4 present the latest available detailed results2 on CDRs of SSI recipients performed in the most recent 15 years.3 These tables include only cases for which we conducted a full medical review. In particular, they do not include: